"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb disputing the outcome."
--(Attributed to) Benjamin Franklin

Monday, June 8, 2009

Catch-300: With Bad Credit, Everything ELSE Goes Bad

At least that's true in the 'legitimate' economy. The LA Times Business section today features a piece about folks who, having lost jobs and experienced difficulty in meeting their credit 'obligations,' later find it difficult to find new jobs BECAUSE their credit reports reflect 'deficiencies' ensuing from their un (or often, dis) employment. The Times story discloses this form of injustice is increasingly happening to formerly middle-class (and higher!) white people. The personal experiences should grab the reader where s/he lives.

We are all sooooo close to the abyss! What is it, 75-80% of people are less than one month's pay away from catastrophic insolvency?!?! Credit rating affects virtually every part of a person's life in the "straight" economy. Even landlords nowadays routinely require tenant applicants to complete credit applications, too, and base decisions on the results. (Aside: Did you know frequently checking on your credit score can actually cause the score to decline? It can, and does. Credit reporting outfits don't track who requests the information. They only count the number of hits, on the theory that if the account is active, the client is actively seeking credit, and they must NEED it for some reason.)

Ironically, on the page adjacent to the story there's a 'google ad' inviting the reader to "Access Your Score In Seconds Get Your Free Credit Report Today!" Or maybe it's not ironic, and that Vonnegut was right that irony died the day Kissinger was awarded the peace Prize. It would be ironic if the article in the paper included the fact that frequent checks of an individual's credit report can be regarded as damaging information and hurt the score. But the paper neglects the information. So Irony slumbers yet.

While reading and considering this story, perhaps in the back of the reader's (either one of them) mind should also be lodged the information that USer 'capitalism' contains within its structure of assumptions and conventions the stipulation that "Full Employment" is not REALLY "full employment." A certain level of "structural" unemployment is always factored into the equation. Typically in the range of three to five percent, depending, so-called 'structural unemployment' is required as a necessary condition for "market efficiency" because the unemployed present a threat quick replacement to workers who might be dissatisfied with capital's generosity to its workers and want to organize.

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.

Fight For Bloggers' Rights

No "Small" Chips

Half-Empty or Half-Full?That's no choice at all.A better one? "Chipped, or Whole?"Cuz nobody wants to slice their lipSucking in that slaking sip.There are NO "small" chips.I don't much like bloodIn my scotch. You, bud?

--WNNK

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Dr. Woody's Droll Dichos & Homey Homilies

"Tweet" and "Twitter": Last gasps of cultural canaries in this hyper-mediated "coal-mine."

A 'gentleman' should be known by the quality of his intoxicants and his generosity with them.

A 9-letter word meaning "Thinking 'Everyone's out to get me.'" 'Paranoiac? "No,"Observant."

A MINIMUM wage that is NOT also a LIVING wage is makes a mockery of "working for a living."

A burning flag never hurt anybody who wasn't wrapped in it.

Age inflicts the subtlest injuries.

Agnosticism: A conviction that arguing over the 'existence' of 'gods' is only idol speculation...

Allowing White people to "define" racism in Murka is like letting priests define pederasty.

Atheism is a "religion" the same way "Off" is a TV channel.

Causation in human affairs is ALWAYS retrospective.

Celebrities are known for BEING known, not for WHAT they know.

Civility is the shit-soaked ball-gag the powerful force onto the People to silence their rage.

Class war only occurs when the workers fight back

Correlation is not causality, but it is close enough for schadenfreude,

Credit cards are nothing so much as renewable instruments of indenture.

Depressions are only really bad for 98-99% of folks. The rest do okay.

Do not automatically impute to 'stupidity' what can equally well be explained by 'malice.'

Do you have the sense that it's already been as good as it's gonna get?

Don't expect to be treated nicely by people to whose faith you are a living rebuke.

Economics is the scientific application of high-level maths to the job of making the Rulers look good.

Everybody's got 'baggage'. What matters is how and what you pack.

Faith is NOT an automatic dispensation from the requirementrs of reason and logic.

Free will (#1) is a handy myth by which the Owners can blame the Losers for their own fate and make the Losers accept the verdict.

Free will (#2) is a metaphorical trap by which the Oners/Owners persuade the powerless to blame themselves for their own oppression.

Freedom in any civilization is measured by the distance between the Church and the State.

Grown-ups don't expect "credit" for doing the right thing, or for NOT doing the wrong one.

Hope is emotional morphine. It doesn't relieve pain, it anulls anxiety about it.

Humanity: A cosmic experiment, testing if Life can survive self-consciousness. The Null Hypothesis appears safe.

I always scored "high" on drug tests...

I believe in higher powers; they're called "exponents."

I find the most vitriolic critics of lawyers usually have NOT been "defendants."

I never lost a job; I knew where every damn one of 'em was the day they let me go...

I'll believe you don't solve problems by throwing money at them when people with money stop throwing it at their problems.

I've not got much use for those who gotta have "God" to be good.

If I know your religious beliefs, and I haven't asked you about'em, you've said too much.

If it's my weed, we're on my schedule; if it's yours, I'm flexible.

If men were conditioned from birth to autofellate, they'd never have to leave the house; there'd be world peace in a generation...

If religious people were susceptible to reason, they wouldn't BE religious people.

If you get better with age, I must SURELY be approaching "splendid" by now.

In a dog's eyes, there's no such thing as "size."

In principle, there are a gazillion explanations for "things" that DON'T require "god," or "divine will" and only one that does. I like the odds.

In the "real" world, nobody cares HOW you win, only THAT you do...

In the Corporate State, corporate media are State Media.

Is "freedom" an intellectual/emotional antidote--the speculative antivenin--to the snake-bite certainty of determinism?

It is often easier an more effective to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.

It's hard to quit being an asshole, because it requires admitting you were an asshole to begin with.

It's your pain. Nobody gets to tell you what hurts, how much or what helps.

Law functions best to insulate the Rulers from the insolence of the unruly.

Life is so rich, so variegated, so fecund that I find it unlikely that it is rare.

Life's an existential tautology: It's only purpose is to "be."

Life's too short to drink cheap Scotch,

Men seldom realize they're in the shit til it closes over them.

Men who weep at tragedy are "compassionate"; a weeping woman is "weak."

Metaphor: The art of calling something what it is not, and being understood.

NOTHING of which humans are capable has NOT at some time been both a sin and a sacrament.

No 'quiet desperation.' Not here; here, the despair is LOUD and RUDE.

No language is either "inferior" or "superior." None is "better" nor "worse." Each one uniquely conveys the conditions its speakers require it to describe.

No people, no country, which rewards "entrepreneurs" with profit from the misery of their neighbors and its citizens, --their illness, injury, imprisonment, disability or death--can be regarded as humane and deserves to be called "civilized." That's a nation of fucking, blood-sucking parasites....

No reliable CorpoRat sycophant, of which ever "party," ever left Congress broke.

Nobody gets religion like a slut gone "good."

Nobody's ever too old to be an orphan.

One may be honestly mistaken; but upon learning what is true, one must thereafter cease to be either 1) mistaken or 2) honest.

One may safely ignore those who loudly or proudly proclaim their own sanctity or enlightenment.

One seldom mutters imprecations when drunk that one does NOT think when sober.

One thing "faith" makes possible: ENDLESS self-deception!

One thing about being a solipsist is, you're never really alone.

Optimism is the secular equivalent of "faith."

People who mock lawyers mostly have never been defendants.

Religion is how folks who need 'purpose' invent it.

Religion is the safest grift: Nobody can say "God" didn't "say" what you say "He said."

Sarcasm: For when it's really NOT worth prison.

Sex is just sex. All the rest is adjectives.

Speed kills. Weed chills.

Television: Electronic thorazine for an irritable polis.

That I am not surprised does not mean I am not outraged.

The "positive thinking" and "self-reliance" rhetoric is a tool the Bosses use to blame the proles for failing to overcome the hurdles, pitfalls, and obstacles the Owners set before them.

The "sin" at the root of all "religious" crimes is "thought."

The Bosses don't have to control what you think as long as they control what you think about, and how you think about it."

The Difference? Drunks run stop-signs; stoners wait for 'em to turn green.

The Rich make "choices": Porsche or Jag;the poor make "decisions": Food or rent.

The Secret of Life: It's doable, once you quit expecting it not to suck.

The biggest difference between "flying" and "falling" is in the landing.

The epitome of human hubris is the frantic search for the cure for death.

The greatest privilege the privileged enjoy is the privilege of pretending they aren't privileged.

The more knowledge there is, the less "miraculous" the Universe seems, but the MORE astonishing.